Gitmo, Still Open

Phillip Carter, who ran the blog Intel Dump before joining the Obama administration as an official for detainee affairs, resigned last week. Greenwald speculates:

[W]hat is abundantly clear is that many of the Bush/Cheney policies which
Carter found most offensive are ones which the new administration has
explicitly adopted as its own. Equally clear is that, following Greg
Craig, this is now the second high-profile resignation of a relatively
devoted civil libertarian in a short period of time. Combine that with
the still-missing-and-unconfirmed Dawn Johnsen, and all of this leaves
those who are indifferent or hostile to civil liberties values --
people like John Brennan and Rahm Emanuel -- with even fewer
counter-weights than before.

Ironically, given that Phil was a relatively senior appointee in the
administration, my position on these issues is closer to the
president’s than his. But this is perhaps the most substantive issue
area in which President Obama most sharply differs from Candidate
Obama. From my perspective, this is a classic case of a naive
candidate being hit with reality when confronted with the reality of
being responsible for America’s national security and I applaud the
president for alienating his base rather than doing the wrong thing.
But for a true believer, I could see how the dashing of Hope and lack
of Change could be too much to bear.

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